16 TALKS ABOUT BIRDS 



we do not keep, but which are well known as 

 wild birds. 



I have said that the peacock took the place 

 of the turkey among the Romans, for the 

 turkey, in spite of its name, did not come 

 from Turkey, but from North America, and 

 so, of course, the ancients could not know 

 anything about it. But when America was 

 discovered it was found that the natives had 

 tamed turkeys and were keeping numbers 

 of them, so turkeys were soon brought over 

 here and found to be much easier to rear in 

 quantities than peacocks, so that peacock on 

 the table soon went out of fashion. Wild 

 turkeys are still found in America, and very 

 wild they are, for of course they have been 

 very much shot down, and those that remain 

 are not at all easy to get at. The wild turkey 

 is of a glossy bronze colour, very like the best 

 tame ones, and it is mostly found in the 

 woods, coming out now and then to feed, very 

 like a pheasant ; in fact, all our ground poultry 

 have much the same ways as pheasants have, 

 when they are wild, and, like pheasants, feed 

 on all sorts of food. 



The only other bird that the natives of 



